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New Mobile Multitasking Defined As 'Distraction Behavior'

Kelly Jones, senior research manager at Microsoft Advertising, said Microsoft has broken down consumer mobile usage into two distinct patterns.

One is dubbed “sequential,” when consumers use their mobile device to navigate and access content and information linearly “across time and space," she told attendees at the
Mobile Insider Summit.

The other is what consumers call “multitasking,” but Microsoft calls “distraction behavior.” Whatever you call it, Jones
said, it is a behavior in which consumers are constantly doing multiple things on their mobile device. It's how they do things in real life, when they’re not being monolithic.

That said, Jones indicated that Microsoft considers the “distraction behavior” consumers to be especially vexing for marketers, because it’s not always clear
how to get them to pay attention to advertising. Just like in the real world.

“Is there room in this behavior for advertisers to insert themselves?” she
wondered, invoking a sentiment that marketers and agencies have been asking before mobile devices ever existed.